Former West Bromwich Albion manager Alan Pardew has undoubtedly had mixed successes across his career in the dugout.
His stand out spells as a manager – looking at games and win numbers – undoubtedly came at Reading, West Ham, Southampton and Newcastle United, although fans of the Hammers and the Geordies will have their own take on his time with them.
Further spells at Charlton and Crystal Palace were a little more mixed.
Time at The Hawthorns is crystal clear though with 21 games, three wins, five draws and 13 losses – unlucky for some. So that makes this interview a few days back quite interesting.
https://twitter.com/GoalsOnSunday/status/1053956686694756357
Now, fair’s fair, Taxi-gate certainly didn’t help things but to suggest that the incident was the only problem is Trumpian for its own levels of fake news.
Three wins in 21 tells you the problems we had, the performances we were putting in tells you the problems we had. Spain was a pathetic distraction that changed absolutely little in reality, other than wind the fanbase up a little bit more.
Nothing changed in the team, Pardew continued picking the culprits with the same regularity as he had done, but oh, Jonny Evans lost the armband from memory.
Darren Moore comes in, our form changes, he created a better siege mentality and he was dealing with the same players and the same supposed splits in the dressing room.
Funny that.
“The toughest thing is for West Brom because it didn’t work out. When you’re an experienced manager you have to hold your hands up and say, I made some decisions there that didn’t work out.”
That was all you needed to say Alan, I’d have agreed.